Judge Saunders Order Alan Sugar To Remove Expenses Trial Tweet

Lord Alan Sugar was asked by a judge to remove a tweet posted by him during an expenses trial of Lord Taylor of Warwick.

The judge Mr Justice Saunders said that he feared that Sugar’s tweet would influence the jury and have a damaging impact on the trial.

“Lord Taylor, Tory Peer in court on expenses fiddle. Wonder if he will get off in comparison to Labour MPs who were sent to jail?” Lord Sugar had tweeted during the second day of Lord Taylor’s trial. Lord Sugar has more than 300,000 followers on Twitter.

Lord Sugar was asked by Judge Saunders to remove the post. Lord Saunders also reported the incident to the Attorney General. The details of the incident, which happened in January, are coming out now after the restrictions were lifted.

“I was concerned that if seen by a juror it might influence their approach to the case. I reported the matter to the Attorney General not for the purpose of taking any action against Lord Sugar but to investigate whether entries on Twitter sites … posed a risk of prejudicing the fairness of a trial, and if so whether there were steps which could be taken to minimise that risk,” Judge Saunders told The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Lord Sugar said that he was unaware of the restrictions when the incident happened as he was away in America.